Reasons to Love: Cinderella 2015 vs Ever After

I was just looking at my posts and I realised that I really haven't been posting very much. Not that it matters, but since I have some time, I thought I'd put together another installment of my favourite series.
*Announcer voice*
 This week on Reasons to Love, we're doing something new. Instead of just listing some reasons that I like certain movies, we're comparing and contrasting two different movies. This time it's going to be the new live action Cinderella and Ever After, which is literally as old as I am. (1998 was the year of fantastic, yet under-appreciated things. HAHHAHAHA. Kidding.) Bother are based of the classic fairy tale of the Little Cinder Girl. But which one gives you more reasons to love it?

1. Transformation

 The transformation in Cinderella is pretty sweet.


Ever After however does not rely on magic, and thus there is no transformation scene.


POINT CINDERELLA


2.  Evil Stepsisters
A pet peeve of mine is that the stepsisters always wear the same clothes.

Well done, Ever After, the stepsisters are two completely different women.


Cinderella....well you see my point (not a GIF)


POINT EVER AFTER


3. Character of the heroine

Ella is kind to the point of being a door mat.


Danielle has things under control.




Okay, I'll just carry the prince then. No problem. 
Heck, and later she saves herself. No prince required for that, thanks.

POINT EVER AFTER

4. Step Mother

While I like Ever After's Villainess (who has eyebrows to rival Elrond),


I love Cinderella's. She is elegant, selfish and she wears grief wonderfully well. I also like how she is almost  a sympathetic antagonist. Her happily ever after is snatched away from her when her husband dies. She thinks she has an opportunity to start another one with Ella's father, but he's so caught up in his daughter and the ghost of his wife that he neglects her. Of course, she could have handled the situation better, but I still love her.


POINT CINDERELLA

5. What about side characters?

In Cinderella, extra characters are pretty slim. Unless you count Mr. Goose.

"I can't drive, I'm a goose!"
Who is priceless (and also speaks my favourite line of the movie. Next time you need a chauffeur this is what I'm saying)

OH Wait, how could I forget the captain?



Ever After has DaVinci who is THE BEST


And the maids are pretty great too


This is a really tough call, but I'm going to have to go with Ever After.
POINT EVER AFTER


6. How about fathers in-law?

Ever After's Prince Henry and his dad have a few issues...


So do Kit and his father, but they have a better relationship


This is also a tough call, but I'm going to say EVER AFTER

7. Costumes

 Cinderella is written as a fairy tale, so the costumes are EPIC.
lsdgnsdlaflsafksksafskldwsbdvksnf;ksdn


Ever After is period, but I don't love it as much.

POINT CINDERELLA



8. Princes

Ever After's Henry has a bit of a dramatic flair


Kit is good, but he's perfect. Which is great for this fairy tale. But what happens when you hide his shampoo?


Henry is written as a very real, three dimensional character. Because of this, he kind of freaks out when he finds that Danielle is not of noble birth.

"Henry, please."

Kit, knows all along and decides that it's no big deal.

POINT EVER AFTER

9. Funny scenes?

Ever After's DaVinci once again takes the cake, mister "perhaps I should leave walking on water to the Son of God..."  Nice boat shoes, though. They'll be hot next season.


Cinderella has the lizard footmen, who speaks my second favourite line in the film. "I'm only a lizard!"  (not a GIF)
(Also the lizard footmen are kind of frightening.)

POINT EVER AFTER

The final score? Ever After 6 Cinderella 3. Both are wonderful movies, but I think Ever After has more things to love.

Monthly Report Cards: December 2015 : GOALS

It's December, that means my sister's birthday, Christmas,  & New Years Eve.
 Let the holidays begin!

Put the finishing touches on the Cinderella dress
If I get to this I'll have a blog post or two and a photo shoot 

Put the finishing touches on the Monster Project 
Unless I change my mind and change the plot (again) I have a bunch of little things to do

Listen to lots of Christmas Music
I made  a play list, but there's room for more, what are your favourite Christmas tunes?

Do a bunch of the things on my Christmas to do List
I made a list, and by golly I'ma gonna cross off those things
(Especially making eggnog and brownies. Very Important)

Monthly Report Cards: November 2015 : REPORT

I only had one goal this month, and I'm proud to say that I completed it with flying colours. My Monster Project now has 50,000 words!! I feel like it’s mostly done now, all it needs is some tweaking in places and a careful round or two of Spell Check ;)

Though I was editing and not technically doing NaNoWriMo I made my self a certificate anyways. The story I have now is extremely different from the one I had in June, so I think I'm justified! I'll be back in a snap with some goals for December.
- Nicole

40,000 Words (PARTY!)

I looked up today and realized that November is drawing to a close. The good news? Me reaching my goal of 50,000 words in my Monster Project is actually looking probable. I hit the 40K mark this evening, and I thought I'd take a moment to celebrate.
I've been working hard this past month, editing nearly everyday, I've added some new scenes and I like to think I've made it better. However, I've reached the point where I understand what's going on, but I'm not sure I've told the reader what they need to know...
But 40K! That's awesome! Only 10,000 more words (5 to edit 5 to pull from thin air)  and I'll have punched my goal in the face (in a triumphant, kindly way).
So yay for attainable goals! Feel free to eat a cookie or a whole cake in my honour, you know you want to. ;)

Monthly Report Cards: November 2015 GOALS

It's November already! This month I only have one goal, and that is:

Finish editing my Monster Project 
November is Na No Wri Mo month, so I'm buckling down to get version 8.5 under my belt. This will take a lot of effort as I'm tweaking the plot as well as fixing 44,900 words.
Wish me luck!

The Pain! The Agony! (the emotional sting of cutting good scenes)

I have a story novel  headache that I’ve been working on since January 2015. I’ve worked on it exclusively, and as of September I had around 44,900 words.
November is National Novel Writing Month, and instead of writing another story, I’ve decided that I will spend this month editing my Monster Project.
 And that was going really, really well.
Until a few days ago.
it was then that I entered the Problem Zone. The Problem Zone has given me trouble since day one, it’s the part of the story where a lot of important information is introduced and my MC (main character) learns of her father’s death.
I’ve spent hours and hours writing, editing and weeping over these few chapters, trying to make my favourite scenes work with my ever evolving plot. And because of all those hours, I couldn’t bear the thought of removing those scenes.
But tonight I faced the facts and started cutting.
I cut the scene that has two really funny lines.
I cut the scene where my elderly guardian ships the MC and her male friend.
I cut the well written scene where I give an answer that was supposed to be a surprise.
I cut and cut and cut.
And it hurt while I did it, but now I’m starting to think that it was the right choice. The bulk of those scenes supported plot devices I abandoned months days ago. They were just dead weight, holding me back.
If this goes sour and I realize that I really do need some of these scenes, I can always go dumpster-diving in my ‘out takes’ file. But to find out for sure, I need to try the story without those scenes.
So yeah, Johanna you were right. I did have to kill my darlings. 

Reasons to love Prince Charming from Once Upon a Time

He's Snow White's prince, and he's awesome.


 He teaches the Evil Queen how to dance.
 


He cleans up goooood


He has plenty of personality, sometimes he gets mad and kicks things.


He and his daughter make a pretty sweet team


The actor who plays him is married to the actress who plays Snow White in real life.

Hello again

No, I didn’t forget about this blog; I keep on meaning to write something, but I’ve had a stunning lack of motivation lately.
In spite of my indifference, October has been shaping up into a fairly interesting month, what with school starting, my birthday and octopuses. (You can read about that here.)
I brought back a ton (it literally felt like a ton) of new art supplies and fabric in my suitcase. I’ve got several projects in mind for my new stash, but when I’ll get to them is still a mystery.
I’ve been participating in Inktober this month and you can see some of my work here.
That’s all for now, folks.

-Nicole

10 Reasons to LOVE Strange Magic

Johanna and I have been trying to watch Strange Magic since June. Every time she/we went to the movie store it was checked out. HOWEVER all of that changed and we were able to watch it.

So now, without further ado:

10 REASONS TO LOVE STRANGE MAGIC

#1 There's this thing. I can't even remember what they called it.

#2 There's a lot of singing.

#3 A lot of singing.

#4 There was a duel!

#5 There was an annoying brat who was obsessed with his hair

#6 ...who does impressions 

#7 The sisters have a sweet relationship 

# 8 SO MUCH SINGING

#9 Everyone on the internet is mixing it with Frozen.

#10 The Main Character was as confused about the movie as me.

BONUS #11 It written by George Lucas

. 

All in all a very fun, entertaining movie with lots of older music. 

Summer Bucket list: The end result

Summer is officially over and almost everyone is back to school. I'm sad that the warm weather has come to an end, but at the same time I'm excited to see what this year will bring.
Look at all the things I managed to accomplish! 

- Go camping (YEAH Stumpy) 
- Have lots of photo shoots

-Make a video (We tried, but it just refused to come together...)

- Have a dessert night (And it was gooooooood)
- Learn  how to use a film camera   (Every time I turn around someone has another film camera for me. I think I have ten now. I'm pleased to report, however that I've been using one :)

-Record some songs on the piano (Not yet! I did however make a cover of Beautiful Scandalous Night )

- Vlog/video diary (I didn't vlog per say but I'm crossing it off because I have lots of random clips that I'll make in to a video)

- Go to the Westerner 

- Go somewhere in costume (Johanna and I went garage saleing as a pirate and Princess Anna.)
- Get my drivers license (I have yet to take the test)
-Watch movies with Johanna (AAAGONYYYYYY also Big Hero 6 made me cry a little.)

- Get some library books/ hang out at the library (Guess where I am right now?)
- Make brownies  (I'm 90% sure I did...)

- Make nachos ( I did, a few times)

- Get completely soaked in a river  (Quinne and I washed our hair in the river on several occasions) 

- Get some bruises ( None so impressive as last year, though I did fall off a horse.)

- Make cupcakes

- Try hair chalk

- Sleep sometimes

- Ride a horse

- Take pictures of the stars   (I did, though I wish I knew the summer stars better.) 

All in all it's been a pretty darn great summer. I'm thankful for all the things I've done and all the laughs I've shared with people. In person. 

I can't tell you how good it is to look someone in the eye, and not at a screen. 

Hello! (11 questions to start the season)

Hello there! It’s been a few months since I’ve been here. I thought a nice way to sort of kick off the blogging season would be to answer a couple questions. The queries on this list were sent to me by Quinne in one of her letters. Since the letter is dated sometime in April this post is much overdue.

1

11.       Can you drive a stick shift?
I had an afternoon of lessons when I was…12?... 11? But sadly nothing stuck (Sorry Wes!)

22.       If you could change your eye colour, would you?
Hmmm I really love green eyes, so I might. But on the other hand I like my eyes just the way they are (blue with a little bit of green).

33.       Name something you dislike about the day you’re having
Okay… I don’t like that we were running late this morning. (I DO like that I’m sitting at a library computer where the internet is FAST)

44.       Where is the shirt your wearing from?
Funny story, this is the shirt I got in Amsterdam this spring.

55.       Do you like watching scary movies?
I don’t think I’ve ever watched a ‘scary’ movie. If I did, I probably wouldn’t enjoy it, I prefer laughing over everything else.

66.       What’s the best part of school?
Learning thing I can use, or that I find fascinating. (ie vocabulary over algebra)

77.       Is your life anything like it was three years ago?
Three years ago was 2012, so yes then was similar to now. Only then I was just starting to get into the swing of living on two continents.

88.       DO you have someone you can be your complete self around?
I am very blessed to have several people I’m completely comfortable with. (I’m looking at you my dear siblings. I also have Quinne and Sarah.)

99.       Have you ever fallen in public?
 Not that I recall, though I’m pretty sure I’ve have a close call or two.

110.   Name something you have to do tomorrow
My last day of driver training! *nervous smile*

111.   Favourite season, and why?
Currently: summer, as much as I love the yellow leaves and snow, summer is the time of year that I talk to people.

How exciting was that? I’ll be back eventually with all the things I was able to scratch off my summer bucket list. 

Summer Bucket List 2015

Monthly Report Cards: Summer Bucket List 2015

It’s that time of year again! The time where I completely slack off and post a list that I hope to accomplish in 3 (or 4) months. I honestly don’t know what my internet/computer access is going to look like this summer, so this is actually the best option.

- Go camping (YEAH Stumpy)

- Have lots of photoshoots

-Make a video (we made scripts!)

- Have a dessert night (people have been sending me recipes)
- Learn  how to use a film camera

-Record some songs on the piano (acoustic beats electric every time)

- Vlog/video diary (I like making and editing videos : ) )

- Go to the Westerner (I’ve missed the fair, like 3 years in a row. Well that ends NOW)

- Go somewhere in costume (I’ve spent all this time working on them, what good are they if I don’t wear them?)
- Get my drivers license (finally…)
-Watch movies with Johanna (Big Hero 6 here I come!)

- Get some library books/ hang out at the library (I don’t know why, but the RDPL has a special place in my heart)
- Make brownies (Good cocoa *sigh*)

- Make nachos ( in a microwave!!)

- Get completely soaked in a river

- Get some bruises (I haven’t bled in weeks WEEKS I TELL YOU)

- Make cupcakes

- Try hair chalk

- Sleep sometimes

- Ride a horse

- Take pictures of the stars (when I go to bed really late at Stumpy I walk past that gap in the trees that overlooks the river. The stars are always so bright, this year I want to try and capture them)

I think that’s about it… I’m looking forward to all the things we have planned for this summer, but at the same time I’m a bit scared.

Have a blessed, happy summer.

(Don’t ever pray for something exciting to happen, God heard me and the next day I got 16 stiches in my knee.) 

Monthly report Cards: May 2015 REPORT

Sorry I’m so late to the party! I completely forgot about doing this.

Post about making my Hiccup Cosplay
Cha cha cha CHECK!

Take a picture a day
I am so funny. This did not happen. Not even close.

Read a book
I started a book…. OH I read the book of Daniel in the Bible. I’m going to count that.

Finish math
BOOYAKASHA! Done like dinner!

Cosplaying Hiccup Production Diary : Bracers - Shoulder Pieces

Sorry this has taken so long to put up, I completely forgot about it. Ah well, this post wasn’t in high demand anyways ;P

Shoulder armour and bracers were both really simple ( I thought) it really just consisted of cutting out the shapes and figuring out how they were supposed to go together. I’m feeling really lazy so here are a bunch of pictures:

This is a bracer being painted

Hand cover thing

Shoulder pieces went sorta like this:

 This is a shoulder piece, Note that you glue the CURVED edges together.

Easy peasy :)

If you have questions feel free to ask. I might remember how I did it. :P